Three new high-speed rail stations — Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin — are scheduled to open today, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday.
The first trains to serve the three stations are due to depart from Taichung at 6:30am, with one scheduled to arrive in Miaoli at 6:50am, and the other two to reach Changhua and Yunlin at 6:44am and 6:50am respectively.
The company said that more than 3,100 tickets have been sold departing from the three new stations on the opening day, while more than 2,300 tickets have been sold that arrive at the three new stations.
According to the past behavior of high speed rail customers, an estimated 60 percent of passengers buy their tickets on the day of departure, making it difficult to estimate the effect of the addition of the three new stations on passenger numbers, the company said.
The additional stations will increase the number of stops form eight to 11 and cut the number of non-stop express Taipei-Kaohsiung trains by 30 percent, while Taipei-Kaohsiung trains that stop at all stations would take 138 minutes and are due to run once an hour.
To celebrate the opening of the new stations, the company is to offer special discounts between today and Dec. 15, including free tickets for passengers who arrive at or depart from one of the new stations.
Between today and Monday next week, souvenir tickets marking the opening of the new stations are to be issued to passengers who use the stations. In addition, the price of a one-way ticket for regular Taipei-Kaohsiung trains is to be cut to NT$1,490 from NT$1,630.
The 345km high-speed rail system was inaugurated in January 2007. The other eight stations are Taipei, New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋), Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Zuoying (左營) in Kaohsiung.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we